"Purple Hibiscus" - post 1

In this post, I will be comparing and contrasting Purple Hibiscus's Eugene and Things Fall Apart's Okonkwo. 

Both Eugene and Okonkwo are important men in their societies (for Eugene, more so in Abba than in the city). They are wealthy and titled, and display their wealth through large houses/compounds. Eugene and Okonkwo are also very controlling of their families, threatening and dolling out abuse if they do not follow every order, meet every expectation. Both men have very high expectations stemming from their hardships in life in order to get to the place of high status that they are at the start of their respective stories. Their high expectations also come from their strong relgious beliefs. Okonkwo's faith is very deeply rooted in the ancestral tribal religion, and fights Christianity with all of his might when the missionaries arrive to Mbanta and Umofia. He even disowns his eldest son for converting to Christianity. Eugene is a Christian in the most extreme form. He practically erases his father from his life because he will not covert to Catholicsm, will not let "pagans" into his compound in Abba, and makes his family focus on God and religion at every moment of every day. Eugene is ashamed of his father's reluctance to convert, just as Okonkwo is ashamed of his for his laziness and indebetness. 

Although these two men are very similar, they have some notable differences. First of all, their religous differences creates a divide in their reactions to their actions, particularly abusing their family. Okonkwo never shows signs of remorse about hurting his family, except when he is forced to by the rest of community because he broke a sacred time of peace. However, every time Eugene abuses his family, he is sinning. As a result, he seems to show some sort of remorse, asking if they are hurt or bleeding after he beats them with a belt for letting Kambilli eat breakfast on Sunday in order to take medicine. Eugene is at the mercy of other people for his security as a factory owner and newspaper publsiher. Okonkwo is a farmer and a warrior, thus he could be independent of the community if he wanted to. Eugene, despite his abusive and extremely controlling nature, seems to genuinely care for his immediate family (although he shuns his father and occasionally his sister and her family). He had the opportunity to take a second wife and replace Kambili, Jaja, and their mother with a new, more reproductive family after Kambilli's mother had several miscarriages, but he chose not to. Okonkwo on the other hand, does not seem to know how to demonstrate affection (which he sees as a weakness-- his focus rather than Eugene's focus on sin), but he does not seem to care for all of his wives and thier children to the same degree.

Both seem to be used by their respective authors to demonstrate the extremes of society, which I think will be used in both novels to demonstrate the power of colonialism and the effects that cultural eradication has on people.